I knew I’d put the cat among the pigeons when I challenged readers of our print publication to list the 20 pieces of music they’d choose to see out their days from all those they’d heard in their lifetimes.

But I didn’t expect so many types of pigeon or such a vast flock to wing its way to me.

Whoever would have thought Bernard Cribbins and Led Zeppelin would appear on the same list? Or Olly Murs and Motorhead?

Nor had I given much thought to the different ways people would approach the challenge. But I know from conversations and correspondence with some of you that it was an almighty task.

One has to have a real passion for music to even bother compiling such a list and with that passion goes great soul-searching, with maybe a hair’s breadth between one beloved track and another.

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Some emailed their lists within a day or two of my column appearing on January 24. These were people who knew their own minds. They had no doubt about their favourites. Well, not much…“I’ve not taken songs from shows and instrumentals or my list would have been up to 100,” said one reader.

“I could quite easily do a top 30 or a top 40,” groaned another. “Or a top ten from each of the five decades that I have been alive... or even my top tens from different genres of music.”

Others spent weeks poring over their record collections, which begs the question: Are they really your favourite tracks if you have to brush up on them? “I could change mine over and over again,” one told me. “Thanks for many a sleepless night!”

A friend jotted down all his favourite artists before setting out to pick one track from each. But his list bust even at that stage and then there were second tracks that just HAD to go in.“Why?” I laughed. “It’s not a test!”

No-one prevaricated more than me, especially once I’d seen other people’s entries. “Of course!” I’d mutter. “That one MUST go in!”